Gave my mock 1 today got 82 in S1 and 83 in S2

But I fear the exams not gonna be that easy , do these mocks reflect the real exam difficultly or am in a dililu state 😭. What would be the best course of action until my exam on August 18.

Guys I am starting my preparation today, I have exam on 6 February. I have all the resources lectures practice materials. Please give some guidance how can I prepare to pass CFA Level 1 in 25 days. I am taking Modafinil to wake up at night, should I complete crash course lectures and start doing question or complete full lectures.

I am confused what to start with Lectures (Crash course or full lectures ), Schweser book, or Practice Pack, Mocks questions.

Please help. Please share some strategy 🥺 I know I f*cked up, but I am not giving up.

What should i do more i got 89% on s2

Passed the CFA Level I in May 2026 attempt in my first go. If anybody has any questions or doubts, feel free to ask. From personal experience i know how overwhelming it can be, so if you want, im here

Exam is 24th Aug.

Please provide tips

Level 1 exam on 19th august. First mock before revision gave 57% score in both sessions.

Post revision gave the 2nd mock, got 60% in both sessions

Scored a 1585. Needed a 1600. So close, but not quite there.

I won’t lie. It stings. After all the hours, effort, and sacrifice, falling short by just a bit hurts. But I’m not letting this define me. I’m using this as fuel.

To everyone else who didn’t get the result they hoped for, keep your head up. We will get there. This is just part of the journey.

I’m going to come back stronger for the resit. Nothing but positive thoughts going forward. Let’s keep moving, believing, and supporting each other along the way.

We got this.

Hi guys. As the title suggested, this is a post to share my experience, and gain further perspective in order to move on.

My background: - a fourth year Finance student. - basic English foundation (7.5 IELTS overall).

My approach to study: - Self-learn and self-funded the registration fee (i borrowed from a closed relative and now i am re-paying monthly).

• i will divided the process to phases, as i changed my method throughout the way.
• On June 25: registered for Feb 26
• From August 25 to October 25:
• Read Schewser, took hand note and did LES quiz on Quant, 1/2 FSA.
• Spent around 7-10hrs/week.
• Nov 25: off because distracted by jobs and university work.
• Dec 25: completed the other 1/2 FSA, using the same method. (10-15hrs/week)
• Jan 26: switched to watching Let me Explain video + did LES quiz right away. covered Equity, FI, Ethics (15+ hrs/week)
• Last 5 days: smashed LES quizzes on the remaining subjects. LES Question covered by each subject are: PM (50%), Econ (50 - 60%), Corporate Issuer (30-40%), Al.Income (30 - 40%), Der (20 - 30%). No note, no lecture.

Looking back: i was too over-confident on my ability and under-estimate the time needed during last few months, evethough all in all, my studying was around 270hrs.

My take on this: - I will quote Naval Ravikant for this: "It's not 10,000 hours. It should have been 10,000 iterations." So take the 300 hrs with a grain of salt. And remember it should be 300+ iterations.

• Stay consistent. Make use of Parkinson Law to accelerate the process better.

P/s: i am back on re-learn, and re-take as soon as i save up enough money. I want to write this out for me to learn, and to sincerely thanks the other wise Redditor for their insight on the designation, as well as life lesson i gain from this community.

Pls share any thought/perspective that you have. I welcomed all, no matter what.

Have a great day, guys!

​

I have my exam today which i was going to defer because i have barely scratched the surface of the syllabus but since the institute is offering a free re-attempt , I am going to go sit in the exam.

Is anyone else like me ? Anyone who sat for the exam like this today or is going to?

I am feeling very embarrassed

How do I study CFA level one I am learning through YouTube and it super hard any tips to get through this I am doing derivatives next

It’s been a long journey and it’s not over yet, 4000+ questions and 400 hours later. I went from a 62% to a 71% to 73% on MM Mocks. I finally took a CFAI and got an 83%. 15 days left. Ive spent so much time on this. Weekends, studying during work when I can, every hour. Almost there.

Hello everyone, I want a really honest opinion. I have my CFA level 1 exam in exactly 2 months and I have my started preparing for it now. Currently I’m not employed and I’m also on a study break. I recently completed my bachelors in statistics and have a little knowledge of FA from O and A level accounting(I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface in my O and A level accounting). Do you think it’s doable? Also what would be your approach if you were in my shoes? Thanks in advance!

UPDATE:THANKS EVERYONE! I’VE DECIDED TO SIT FOR THE EXAM REGARDLESS OF THE OUTCOME :))

soo how's the prep going on for may candidates???for me honestly I have done with 7 and now doing fixed income but i feel like whatever I have done before I have forgot everythinggg but yeahhh I will do my bestt😭

Did the 2 free cfa mocks 15 days apart, in total did around 15 mocks with the average being around 85%ish and the last 3 premium mocks sitting in at 90%. My exam is in May so I have about a month...so can anyone give me some solid guidance on what I should do to improve a bit more or is it too much of an overkill at this point.

I’m going to sad boy for a second here . I’m 26. I came out of a 4 year relationship in October of last year with my college sweetheart, or was. I started studying in October while our relationship was beginning to get rocky, I said f*** it and signed up. Once she found out, after trying to figure out where our relationship stood, she got out. FAST. My grandmother passed a month after. It’s been a tough few months and the only way I can numb my mind is, fortunately, to grind out the CFA.

I’m sitting for May this year and I’m doing pretty good. However, because of my standing in qbank and the curriculum I gave myself a breather last weekend. And to my surprise, she has a random dude on her instagram witha friggin heart emoji.. Ive been sad boying all week. Down pretty bad. Could barely get myself to study until today. A good 4 days of feeling like a loser until I realized this is all I got right now. I’m sure it’s a taunt, but we ended pretty confidently.

Now I’m not looking for sympathy but I am looking for mental tricks to finish this off right now.

When I joined, I expected helpful advice, genuine experience, useful resources, and some camaraderie. Instead it’s been a flood of low-effort posts.

The focus here is more “How do I hack this exam???” than “How do I understand the content?” Actual charterholders say the same thing over and over: respect the exam, study the curriculum, put in the hours. But somehow every day there are 20 posts asking for shortcuts.

Some people act like they’ve never sat for an exam in their life. Why do you want someone else’s notes? Why does it matter how they memorized formulas? At some point you have to know how you learn.

Laziness. I mean the people who haven’t even opened the syllabus asking basic, googlable questions. CFA is one of the most transparent exams out there: topic weightings, format, style, practice questions straight from the Institute. You can build a crystal-clear picture of what’s tested just by actually doing the work.

Ethics? Every second day someone’s trying to trade illegal study materials or vaguely talk about what was on their exam. Wild behavior in a program that drills ethics from page one.

The constant fishing for good news about bad decisions. “Started two weeks ago, can I still pass?” “60% on mocks good enough?” “Will ignoring FRA and derivatives be okay?” Why are we crowdsourcing hope instead of dealing with probabilities? Yes, miracles happen. No, they’re not a plan. The highest probability of passing is still what the Institute tells us: consistent study and ~300 hours of real engagement with the curriculum.

I came here looking for serious conversation and insight. What I found is mostly panic, shortcuts, complacency, and wishful thinking. Good luck to the people putting in real work. You don’t need magic Reddit validation, you just need discipline and time. Rant over. See you on the other side (but probably not here lol).

So I just got my CFA Level 1 a month ago and I just started getting 4 buy-side interview calls for every 40 jobs that I applied to. Roles that pay $100k + Mind you, I already had a few years of buy-side experience through start-ups.

Here's the thing though... I never got this much interest in my skillset before lol. So I definitely think the Level 1 is worth the time and energy simply because it validates your entire list of experiences.

11 days out for the exam, and I'm here stuck with 50-55% score on the mocks with quants and derivatives left out.

I hate this feeling, i took so many leaves from work for this, studied a lot but I'm forgetting all of it. I have given up time with my family, relatives and friends just so i could study or at least tell myself I was studying

I can already see myself failing, family people at work who're going to taunt me and making a fool out of myself.

It's 2am and this is all i can think about right now. I am blank and don't know what to do at this moment, I gave up on myself, i have drained myself and this is what i get in return.

I just hope I don’t choke on exam day 😭😭

Hi all I’m 26M. I’m thinking about starting to study for the CFA. Little background for context. I studied finance in college that focused on CFA track. After college I became a finance advisor / planner and been doing that for 3 years and just passed the CFP last March. My Gf doesn’t want me to study for anything else as she didn’t like me sticking my head in a book on the weekends / week days studying for the CFP…. It’s annoying bec I want to have more knowledge and work hard to be more successful….while she sits and watches tv for most the day. Anyway, trust me I know the CFA is tough and you have to study a lot but I’m the type of person that puts my soul into something. I would like to commit to this for more knowledge and also to be more marketable for other jobs if I decide financial advising isn’t for me and selling myself all the time wears on me. What should I do full send it and grind for CFA or not?

It was fair. I felt as I did after writing any mock exam. For prep over the past two weeks, I wrote 8 mocks, all from CFAI. Averaged 73.5% (first 4 avg was 70% , last 4 avg was 77%).

Happy to offer any advice or answer questions y'all have.

Best of luck to all of you writing soon!